The Pirates have designated catcher Jacob Stallings for assignment, per a club announcement. His 40-man roster spot was needed for southpaw Steven Brault, who was called up to start today’s game.
[Related: Updated Pirates Depth Chart]
Originally selected in the seventh round of the 2012 draft out of the University of North Carolina, Stallings has steadily climbed through the Bucs’ system but has never hit much. He appeared briefly at the major league level for the first time this year, but has played mostly at Triple-A in 2016.
Stallings’s already borderline bat hasn’t improved thus far in 2016; far from it, in fact. Over his first 180 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors,the 26-year-old owns a meager .202/.239/.327 slash line.
He will probably be unclaimed and later outrighted to Pittsburgh’s AAA team.
Why designate a guy with all of his options? Don’t the Pirates have guys closer to a needed DFA than Stallings? Smart teams with worse catchers on their 40 man rosters will claim.
He is hitting like .200 at AAA this season and isn’t very young at 26. There aren’t many teams that would want him taking up a spot on their 40 man roster.
What bigbugsfan said. It is about clearing a spot on the 40 man for Brault who was not on the 40man. Not many options left on the 40man. They DFA’d Scahill to make room for Fryer. Most of whom is left on the 40 man that can get DFA’d would most likely get claimed. Stallings was the odd man out. They just moved up a AA catcher yesterday to Indy. Now I know why.
Not a huge chance he gets claimed, not the end of the world if he is. Diaz is on a rehab assignment, McGuire is in Double A. Stallings is not really a prospect anymore, but good organizational depth.
Agreed. I could see the Cardinals claiming him since we just nabbed Fryer however.
optioning stallings was done when he was sent back down to triple a. the option does not take player off the 40 man just the 25 man active roster. to free up a space on the 25 man a team must either DFA someone, as they did with stallings, or transfer someone one the DL from the 15 day to the 50 day, which isn’t something they want or should do with any player on the DL right now. because in case you didn’t know, once the 60 day that player can’t come back til the 60 days are up, even if they are retroed to the 60 day. they did what they needed to do to fill a need right now for a spot starter who was not on the 40 man let alone the 25 man. i’m sure they didn’t want to do that but making an educated guess he will go unclaimed since he is lite hitting with the bat. it’s not person just the business of the game.
As if things couldn’t go worse for Pittsburgh, kang is now in the middle of a rape investigation according to the Chicago tribune
Oh no. Even though he can’t hit (except for the one game where he had 7 rbi’s at AAA) he’s an excellent receiver.